Stone Empire
The Stone Empire (Farwestern: Ekrolkolk, "Stoneland") is one of the four empires of the Far West, and is supposed to be ruled by the Great Emperor of the Stone from Stonetowers, but in actuality is ruled by the Great Emperor of the Forest from Thousandtrees or on occasion by claimants to the title of Great Emperor of the Stone, most of whom are typically warlords from the Sarpland. In the ancient past the Stone Empire was the largest empire of the Far West, extending past its current borders all the way across the Delkish Continent to the Orenn Great-Sea. The Stone Empire's rule over its vast empire was short-lived, as this territorial expansion was both brutal, and authoritarian, and more than that, the noblemen of conquered territories were strippped of many of their rights, and were now heavily taxed. These injustices led to the rise of Aye the Queen, who was able to unify the subjects of the Stone Empire against Great Emperor of the Stone [[Mulket Gaha|Mulket Gaha]] Gayush, and then against the other Great Emperors, leading to centuries of "home rule." Even now, many citizens of the Stone Empire identify more strongly with the Sarpland and Telf than they do with the three other empires. History: Gayush was a small village just south of the Claw of Ires where two likely half-brothers, Kalbal, son to a whore, and Hololk, son of a painted goodlord and an unknown woman, were raised. They learned how to ride horses, string bows, sharpen swords, build fires, pitch tents, skin common animals, and most of all, about the total, unending brutality of life. They grew up in an endlessly difficult time, during the tail end of the decline and subsequent fall of the Southern Empire due to the environmental effects of the eruption of Mount Scorpion. Kalbal was a man possessed, however, as he had a strong belief in the supernatural. Hololk's father was most-likely also his father, and so Kalbal took to believing very strongly in the occult as a coping mechanism. This is what led to him kidnapping the Four Alchemists, four "alchemists" who had many prophetic visions, and believed that they were destined to build an empire around four castles, which were to be successors to four other castles they saw destroyed in their vision of the eruption. Hololk tortured the Four Alchemists for Kalbal, and was able to directly manipulate Kalbal by feeding him false prophecies. Hololk was able to secure control over Stonetowers, the first of the Four Capitols which he and Kalbal would go on to build. Hololk took on the name of his hometown as his house name, becoming Great Emperor of the Stone Hololk Gayush. Gayush would aid Kalbal in his imperial ventures if only to not have an unfriendly neighbor immediately to the north, but spent most of his rule consolidating power. Roads and military fortresses were built by him and his descendants all over the Delklands, and plans were put in place to sell property near these forts for very cheap. Although these forts were manned, this was done only very sparsely, and control over the far reaches of the empire was tenuous at best, and became slowly non-existent. That is until Laklol III Gayush, who set out to finish what his ancestor started. Thus commenced the subjugation of Deylk, followed by the siege of Hocktonne, and finally, the unsuccessful Invasion of Telf. This directly sowed the seeds of Aye the Queen's rebellion and War for Conquest. Category:States Category:Locations Category:History Category:Four Empires